Monday, December 29, 2025 – 7:00 PM ET??
Canadian Tire Centre – Ottawa, Ontario
TV: FDSNOH; Radio: 97.1 FM
Columbus Blue Jackets (16-15-6, 38 points, 8th Metro, 16th East)
at
Ottawa Senators (18-14-5, 41 points, 6th Atlantic, 13th East)
Previously
Last night, the Blue Jackets flipped the recent script by scoring three goals in the third period to come from behind and beat the New York Islanders in regulation. Gutsy performance from a team missing its best player.
Notes
A back-to-back that involves a border crossing is tricky enough, but now we’re dealing with multiple delays due to mechanical issues on the team plane. They were not able to leave after last night’s game, and departure today has been pushed back multiple times to 2:40 PM. Stay tuned to see if this game starts on time or not.
Zach Werenski was moved to the IR so he will miss tonight’s game too, but on the plus side, that made room for Mathieu Olivier to return to action last night.
On Ottawa’s side, they will be without goaltender Linus Ullmark, who is taking a leave of absence for personal reasons. Shane Pinto, who has missed three weeks with injury, has been upgraded to a game time decision for tonight’s game.
The Jackets are still in last place in the East, but every team in the conference is above NHL .500. The CBJ are just 4 points out of a playoff spot!
Stats
| Ottawa | Columbus | |
| 3.27 (8) | GPG | 2.92 (20) |
| 3.24 (22) | GAPG | 3.41 (29) |
| 25.8 (4) | PP% | 19.8 (14) |
| 70.6 (32) | PK% | 74.8 (29) |
| 52.4 (5) | 5v5 Shot Attempt % | 50.5 (14) |
| 53.8 (3) | 5v5 Unblocked Shot Attempt % | 49.3 (18) |
| 10.1 (9) | 5v5 Shooting % | 8.7 (23) |
| 89.4 (29) | 5v5 Save % | 90.6 (13) |
| Tim Stutzle (19) | G Leader | Zach Werenski (14) |
| Drake Batherson (22) | A Leader | Zach Werenski (26) |
| Tim Stutzle (40) | P Leader | Zach Werenski (40) |
| Ridly Greig (43) | PIM Leader | Mathieu Olivier (44) |
| 8-6-3 | Home/Road | 8-9-3 |
| 5-4-1 | Last 10 | 3-6-1 |
Projected Lineups
Columbus Blue Jackets
| Mason Marchment | Adam Fantilli | Kirill Marchenko |
| Dmitri Voronkov | Sean Monahan | Kent Johnson |
| Boone Jenner | Charlie Coyle | Mathieu Olivier |
| Miles Wood | Brendan Gaunce | Cole Sillinger |
| Denton Mateychuk | Damon Severson |
| Ivan Provorov | Dante Fabbro |
| Jake Christiansen | Brendan Smith |
| Elvis Merzlikins |
| Jet Greaves |
Ottawa Senators
| Brady Tkachuk | Tim Stutzle | Fabian Zetterlund |
| David Perron | Dylan Cozens | Drake Batherson |
| Michael Amadio | Shane Pinto | Glaude Giroux |
| Kurtis MacDermid | Ridly Greig | Nick Cousins |
| Jake Sanderson | Artem Zub |
| Thomas Chabot | Jordan Spence |
| Tyler Kleven | Nikolas Matinpalo |
| Leevi Merilainen |
| Hunter Shepard |